Michinaka Sugano

The reversible strain effect on critical current over a wide range of temperatures and magnetic fields for YBCO coated conductors

The strain effect on critical current (Ic(?)) in Y Ba2Cu3O7 ? ? (YBCO) coated conductors was evaluated at temperatures in the range 20?83?K under magnetic fields parallel to the c-axis up to 10?T. The peaked reversible variation of Ic with applied uniaxial strain was confirmed in the self-field at all tested temperatures. The strain sensitivity increases with increasing temperature, resulting in a more pronounced reversible suppression with strain at higher temperature. Interestingly, it was found that the peak strain corresponding to the maximum of Ic shifts to the compressive side with decreasing temperature. Such a peak shift cannot be explained by a change in the thermal residual strain of the YBCO film, suggesting that the peak strain of the Ic(?) in YBCO coated conductors is not determined only by relaxation of the residual strain. The strain sensitivity of Ic(?) at 60?K becomes greater with increasing magnetic field, while the influence of the magnetic field is much less pronounced at 20?K. The in-field Ic(?), including the compressive strain region as well as the tensile region, shows a double peak behavior at low magnetic field at 77 and 83?K. The temperature and magnetic field effect on Ic(?) in YBCO coated conductors is discussed considering flux pinning within the grains and on grain boundaries.

Reversible strain dependence of critical current in 100 a class coated conductors

The strain dependence of the critical current was studied for YBCO and DyBCO coated conductors with different buffer layers on Hastelloy substrates. A maximum of I/sub c/ was observed for both the YBCO and DyBCO tapes, however the sign of the strain at the I/sub c/ peak was opposite for the two superconductors. A reversible variation of I/sub c/ with applied strain was found and the reversible strain limit was observed to depend on the buffer layer. For the IBAD-CeO/sub 2//YSZ buffered YBCO tapes, I/sub c/ recovers reversibly when the applied strain is reduced starting from 0.30%. For those with an ISD-MgO buffer layer the irreversible degradation starts at a strain less than 0.22%. The reason for this difference is discussed based on microscopic observations. Quenching occurred during V-I measurements after the applied strain exceeded 0.30%, which is close to the yield strain of the composite tape.

Internal residual strain and critical current maximum of a surrounded Cu stabilized YBCO coated conductor

The deformation behavior of the surrounded Cu stabilized YBCO coated conductor based on the Hastelloy substrate and its influence on the critical current were precisely investigated. The mechanical properties were assessed at room temperature and 77 K. The greatest contribution was brought by two metallic components of the Hastelloy substrate and Cu stabilized layers. The internal strain exerted on the superconducting YBCO layer was determined directly by using synchrotron radiation facilities. The thermally induced residual strain with compressive component decreased during the tensile loading and changed to a tensile component at the force free strain (Aff), at which the internal stress becomes zero in the YBCO layer. Beyond Aff, the increasing rate of internal strain slowed down, suggesting brittle behavior, that is, the formation of micro-cracks. The applied strain dependence of the critical current could be divided into two regions. In the reversible region, the strain dependence obeyed the intrinsic strain effect and was well expressed by the Ekin formula. Beyond the reversible limit, the critical current decreased rapidly with strain. The degradation is suggested to be attributed to the formation of cracks in the YBCO layer. The force free strain evaluated from the mechanical properties was 0.26%. On the other hand, the strain at the critical current maximum was observed to be 0.035–0.012%. These facts suggest re-examining the hypothesis supposing that the critical current maximum appears at the force free strain in YBCO coated conductors.

Stress Tolerance and Fracture Mechanism of Solder Joint of YBCO Coated Conductors

YBCO coated conductors have been expected to be applied to superconducting magnetic energy storage (SMES) due to high critical current density under high magnetic field and possibility of reducing cooling cost. Solder joints are essential to fabricate a high Tc superconducting coil for SMES system which requires long length of coated conductors. Not only low joint resistance but sufficient mechanical strength is needed, since conductors are exposed to large electromagnetic force generated by large transport current and high magnetic field. In the present study, influence of tensile load on transport property through the joint was investigated. The solder joint with sufficiently low resistance of 5.3 nOmega was attained before loading. Such joint can carry the load up to 650 N without substantial degradation. For further applied load, degradation attributed to fracture at the edge of the conductor is firstly observed. Overall fracture is caused by delamination at the interface between YBCO and CeO2 . As a result, importance of interfacial strength between the superconducting and buffer layer is revealed to realize both low joint resistance and mechanical strength for solder joint.

Tensile damage and its influence on the critical current of Bi2223/Ag superconducting composite tape

We have studied the tensile behaviour of Bi2223 superconducting composite tapes at room temperature, and the influence of the tensile damages introduced at room temperature on the critical current Ic and the n values at 77 K. In the measurement of the Ic and n values, the overall composite with a gauge length 60 mm was divided into six elements with a gauge length of 10 mm in order to find the correlation of the Ic and n values of the overall composite to those of the local elements which constitute the composite. From the measured stress–strain curve of the composite and the calculated residual strain of the Bi2223 filaments, the intrinsic fracture strain of Bi2223 filaments was estimated to be 0.09–0.12%. When the applied strain was lower than the onset strain of the filament damage, the original Ic and n values were retained both in the overall composite and the elements. In this situation, while the overall voltage at the transition from superconductivity to normal conductivity of the composite was the sum of the voltages of the constituent elements, among all elements the overall voltage was affected more by the element with the lower Ic (higher voltage). The damage of the filaments arose first locally, resulting in a reduction of the Ic and n values in the corresponding local element, even though the other elements retained the original Ic and n values. In this situation, the voltage of the overall composite stemmed dominantly from that of the firstly damaged weakest element, and the overall Ic and n values were almost determined by the values of such an element. After the local element was fully damaged, the damage arose also in other elements, resulting in segmentation of the filaments. Thus, the Ic and n values were reduced in all elements. The correlation of Ic between the overall composite and the elements could be described comprehensively for non-damaged and damaged states from the voltage–current relation.

The effect of the 2D internal strain state on the critical current in GdBCO coated conductors

A reversible effect of strain on the critical current (Ic) has been reported for REBa2Cu3O7−δ (REBCO) coated conductors. In this study, the strain sensitivity of Ic was compared for GdBCO coated conductors with different crystal orientations. Extremely small strain sensitivity was confirmed from tensile and bending tests at 77 K for a GdBCO film with the [110] direction parallel to the tape length (Gd-F), while a GdBCO film with the [100] or [010] direction parallel to the tape length (Gd-I) has much stronger strain dependence of Ic. To compare the strain sensitivity of Ic based on internal strain, the lattice strain was evaluated for a GdBCO film in a composite conductor by employing a diffraction technique using synchrotron radiation. The lattice strain was determined along both the a- and b-axes for the orthogonal domains that are generated by the twin structure of GdBCO film. A distinct difference in the 2D strain state that depended on the crystal orientation was revealed for the GdBCO coated conductors. In Gd-I, the lattice strains along the axial and lateral directions are tensile and compressive under tensile loading, respectively, that is, the 2D internal strain state is anisotropic. On the other hand, an almost isotropic 2D strain state was confirmed in Gd-F. In addition, the strain components along the crystal axes in Gd-F are much smaller than the axial strain components in Gd-I. This difference in the internal strain state is attributed to the difference in strain sensitivity between the GdBCO coated conductors with different crystal orientations. The contributions of the strain components along the a- and b-axes to Ic are discussed on the basis of the measured strain sensitivities and internal strains for two conductors.

Intrinsic strain effect on critical current and its reversibility for YBCO coated conductors with different buffer layers

The uniaxial strain dependence of the critical current was examined for YBCO coated conductors with IBAD-CeO2/YSZ or ISD-MgO buffer layers on Hastelloy substrates. Ic increased with increasing applied strain, reached a maximum and decreased for higher strain values. The reversible strain region of Ic variation was observed. The reversible strain limit depends on the buffer layers. For the CeO2/YSZ buffered tape, Ic recovered the initial value even after the applied strain reached 0.30%. On the other hand, an irreversible degradation of Ic was observed at the strain less than 0.22% for the MgO buffered tape. The overall relationship between the Ic normalized by the peak value and the intrinsic strain in YBCO obeyed a unified scaling function. Quenching occurred at the strain close to the yield strain of the Hastelloy substrate.

Microscopic fracture of filaments and its relation to the critical current under bending deformation in (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 composite superconducting tapes

The strain dependence of the critical current, Ic, of (Bi,Pb)2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10 (Bi2223)/Ag/Ag?Mg composite superconducting tapes has been studied both experimentally and analytically under bending deformation. Tests have been carried out for one type of tape used in the VAMAS bending round-robin programme. The complex stress?strain behaviour of each component was first analysed in tension. This was done by comparing the stress?strain curves of composite tapes with those of Ag and Ag?Mg alloy tapes. Here, the plastic deformation (work hardening) of Ag and Ag?Mg alloy, and the thermal residual strain due to the manufacturing process were taken into account. The fracture strain of Bi2223 filaments was inversely determined as 0.08% to meet the global tensile stress?strain curve of the composite tape. The calculated stress?strain curves finally agreed well with the experimental results when the as-supplied bending strain was taken into account. Then, the analysis was modified to fit the bending deformation. Here, the movement of the neutral axis due to the non-symmetric and elastic?plastic stress?strain curves of the components and their Bauschinger effect were taken into account. The relative decrease of Ic with the increase in the Bi2223 tape curvature was calculated from the volume fraction of the broken filaments. The calculated Ic agreed well with the experimental results when the movement of the neutral axis and the Bauschinger effect were taken into account. Microscopic observation of the spatial distribution of the filament fracture indicated that the damage occurred at the outermost layer on the tensile side when the curvature was small, and then the damage front shifted to the inside layers. The observed fracture behaviour of the Bi2223 filament agreed well with the estimated location based on the above analysis.

Reversible strain limit of critical currents and universality of intrinsic strain effect for REBCO-coated conductors

Intensive research work has been carried out in order to develop industrially available HTS REBCO-coated conductors under the NEDO project in Japan. Recently, several groups in the project succeeded in the development of high performance coated conductors. Their characteristic features have been evaluated in terms of mechanical properties and their influence on critical currents. The mechanical properties at RT and 77 K were analyzed on the basis of the rule of mixtures. The force-free strain (Aff) was analytically deduced, which indicates the strain at which the residual stress exerted on the superconducting layer becomes zero. Tensile strain dependence on critical currents could be divided into elastic and brittle regions. The reversible strain limit (Arev) was defined as a strain at which the critical current recovers elastically to the level of 99% Ico. Within the elastic region, the critical current showed a convex strain dependence, which is explained as Ekins intrinsic strain effect. The degradation beyond the reversible strain limit was attributed to a fracture of the superconducting layer. As a whole, the present study made clear quantitatively the tensile strain behavior of critical currents and proposed a reasonable definition for the reversible strain limit.

Performance Improvement of YBCO Coil for High-Field HTS-SMES Based on Homogenized Distribution of Magnetically-Mechanically Influenced Critical Current

Generally speaking for a HTS coil, perpendicular magnetic field to conductors broad surface should be suppressed as small as possible in relation to the magnetic anisotropy. This is a reason why toroidal coil with relatively many elementary coils is expected for HTS-SMES. On the other hand, from the point of view of the homogenization of critical current distribution in the coil, perpendicular field and parallel field should be balanced corresponding to the ratio of the magnetic anisotropy. This means that a certain level of the perpendicular field is effective to reduce local heat generation in the coil. Furthermore, this concept is especially reasonable for a high-field coil with usual winding method (flat-wise winding) because the perpendicular field does not induce hoop stress which decreases the critical current. In this paper, we show these findings through an optimal design of a MOCVD-YBCO toroidal coil for 2 GJ class SMES taking account of magnetically and mechanically influenced J - E characteristics.